I experianced a strange error on my 5D yesterday. It was the first shot, and the camera acted as if it was dead after I toke the first shot. The LCD display would not light up. In the viewfinder I could see "ERR" in the display. I cycled the camera on and off and it was fine. The picture did come and was sort of bluish and underexposed. I'm hoping it was just a fluke occurence and not the start of something like the first shot black issue. I have seen the "ERR" message once before but not with the same symptoms. Anyone have a similiar experince?

I just made a long winded post about this issue in another thread yesterday. So, I'll copy and paste my response from it:

According to KM's diagnostics, the shutter mechanism is at fault. It's got something to do with too much pressure being sensed somewhere.

Some users have sent their cameras in and had their shutter mechanisms replaced.

My theory:

The shutter mechanism is probably binding a little bit when the camera hasn't been used in a while, and temperature probably plays a role, too (expansion and contraction of the parts).

That's the most common report you see (let the camera sit for a day or day and it will sometimes lock up on the first photo requiring a power cycle with a dark frame for the image taken. Then, it works fine again until the camera has been sitting unused for a while (usually 1 or more days).

I think it's a combination of problems.

Chances are, the error is being generated because of a voltage/current monitor somewhere that assumes the change is due to a shutter mechanism binding. That makes sense, because of it's a bit "stiff", it's going to pull more current.

When I see this issue come up, my advise is this (and some users say that it doesn't work for them)

Clean all of your contacts (battery, battery contacts in the camera (use a Pencil eraser or Q-tip with a touch of alcohol if nothing else to get the ones in the bottom of the battery compartment), battery contacts, lens contacts, lens mount contacts on camera).

Then, set your camera to manual exposure, using a relatively fast shutter speed shooting jpeg in contiinuous mode and fill up a larger card with images. This should have the effect of heating up the shutter mechanism a bit and help to loosen it up (similar to breaking in a new firearm, so that it's not binding as much).

Then, see if the problem goes away. It did for me. I originally assumed that cleaning all contacts fixed it. But, it may have been a combination of things I did. In any event, I haven't had a lockup since February, and it was doing it every time I let the camera sit for a day or two before then.

Of course, many users have never seen the issue (I've seen reports of users with many thousands of shots on their 5D's with no issues at all). So, you can't tell if it will crop up or not later down the road.

Personally, I'm not worried about it with my 5D. It's working just fine now (and even if it did lock up on the first shot after sitting for a few days, it wouldn't be a big deal to me). Mine hasn't had a lockup since February (after a thorough cleaning).

A 7D owner on another forum sent me this picture. It represents one of the types of pictures she got with this condition. Her camera is being repaired at Precision. The shutter was back-ordered and is now in stock.

A 7D owner on another forum sent me this picture. It represents one of the types of pictures she got with this condition. Her camera is being repaired at Precision. The shutter was back-ordered and is now in stock.

A 7D owner on another forum sent me this picture. It represents one of the types of pictures she got with this condition. Her camera is being repaired at Precision. The shutter was back-ordered and is now in stock.

That photo is similar to the results I got.

Coincidently the camera did take a minor drop a few days before. It was inside a standard Minolta hip bag and fell off a chair and landed on commercial carpet. I checked it out and it worked fine after the drop. No problems taking pictures or trouble with the AS system. I put it away for a few days and then experienced the problem. I'm not saying the drop definitely has anything to do with it, but thought it might be a possibility. The good news is I only paid 265 for it with the kit lens and have an extra year on the warranty from Circuit City. It is still under the one year warranty and it would be better for me to have it repaired since refunding me doesn't get me much. I could probably get more for it on EBay even with the problem.

If I send it out for repair, I might use a gift receipt copy. I figure if Sony gets wind of how little I paid, they might opt not to fix it right off the bat. Of course they might not know unless Precision tells them and I doubt that since Precision probably does better on repairs verses buy-outs.

In any event, I'm going to wait a couple of days to see if it happens again after I clean the contacts and cycle the shutter a gazillion times.

I tried Jims's technique of cleaning all of the contacts...battery, battery compartment and lens contacts. Ithen fired off a full card of continuous shots at a high shutter speed. After two days of the camera sitting I have no problems. It is either fixed, it didn't sit long enough, or I really didn't have the problem to begin with. Only time will tell.

A 7D owner on another forum sent me this picture. It represents one of the types of pictures she got with this condition. Her camera is being repaired at Precision. The shutter was back-ordered and is now in stock.

That photo is similar to the results I got.

Coincidently the camera did take a minor drop a few days before. It was inside a standard Minolta hip bag and fell off a chair and landed on commercial carpet. I checked it out and it worked fine after the drop. No problems taking pictures or trouble with the AS system. I put it away for a few days and then experienced the problem. I'm not saying the drop definitely has anything to do with it, but thought it might be a possibility. The good news is I only paid 265 for it with the kit lens and have an extra year on the warranty from Circuit City. It is still under the one year warranty and it would be better for me to have it repaired since refunding me doesn't get me much. I could probably get more for it on EBay even with the problem.

If I send it out for repair, I might use a gift receipt copy. I figure if Sony gets wind of how little I paid, they might opt not to fix it right off the bat. Of course they might not know unless Precision tells them and I doubt that since Precision probably does better on repairs verses buy-outs.

In any event, I'm going to wait a couple of days to see if it happens again after I clean the contacts and cycle the shutter a gazillion times.

The same thing happened to my son's 7D after a very minor drop of about 18" in a padded camera case. It worked when he tested it but a week later he started having problems and sent it in still under warranty. That was at the time when they were having part problems and they refunded his purchase price and said it was not repairable.